Fabric cover



m ..3 $2 a R Dec. 23, 1952 J. F. 'ROHS firm.

FABRIC COVER ori i al Filed July 19, 1949 INVENTORS 01/14? HAD/Human: Jme'pH E Poi/J.

Reissued Dec. 23, 1952 FABRIC 'oovsa Joseph F. Robs, Riverside, Conn., and Oliver Wesley Davidson, New Brunswick, N.-J., assignors, by mesne assignments, to Chicopee Manufacturing Corporation, Chicopee Falls, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Original No. 2,601,326, dated June 24, 1952, Serial No. 105,588, July 19, 1949. Application for reissue August 19, 1952, Serial No. 305,313

L 6 Claims.

a Matter enclosed in heavy brackets appears in the original patent but forms no reissue specification; matter printed in italics indicat 1 The present invention relates to a fabric cover especially for use in the protection of plants such as orchids in'horticultural greenhouses.

For many years it has been the practice in v and more particularly to a shade cloth designed cultivating plants .such as orchids under greenhouse conditions to use various types of shades on the roof of the greenhouse to control the amount of sunlight falling upon the plants undergoing cultivation. In some instances shade is produced by. using various forms of white paint applied directly to the glass panes in the green--:

house ceiling. A more satisfactory practice has involved the use of a roll type lath shade placed on the roof of the greenhouse having alternate opaque and transparent stripes to reduce and diffuse the light reaching the plants.

The object of the present invention is to pro vide an improved roof including an improved shadecloth which obviates the disadvantages inherent in the use of prior devices including opaque paints or of prior lath shades. A-more particular/object is the provision of a shade cloth which gives the desirable shade pattern and diffusion characteristic of the lath shade but which is not subject to the limitations and disadvantages thereof. Another object is to provide a shade cloth which produces the desired degree of shade. gives greater diffusion of heat under the shade, afiords lower wind resistance and reflects a substantial proportion of the heatproducing infraredrays impinging on the cloth when placed on the roof of a' greenhouse.

Another object is to provide an improved shade which increases the amount of sunlight reaching the plants when the sun is low.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description progresses with reference to the three figures of the drawing, wherein:

Fig. l is a plan view of a fragment of the cloth;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragment of Fig. l; and

Fig. 3 is a cross section through a glass roof with the fabric overlaid thereon.

Referring particularly to Figs-1 and 2, the preferred cloth in accordance with the present invention comprises a woven fabric formed by a plurality of closely woven horizonal stripes I1 separated from each other by open weave horizontal stripes IS. The closely woven horizontal part of this es the additions made by reissue.

stripes H are substantially opaque and preferably comprise substantially contiguous opaque warp strands l2 interwoven between weft strands I! which are desirably widely spaced pairs in a plain [one-up, one-down] two-up, two-down weave.

The transparent stripes i5 preferably comprise widely spaced monofilament warp strands It interwoven between the widely spaced weft strands IS. The warp and weft strands from which the fabric is woven are preferably highly'refiective opaque round monofilaments such as a white pigmented plastic monofilament having a smooth. shiny surface, white pigmented monofilament formed from vinylidene chloride polymers and copolymers (saran) being ideal. The fabric may be designed to give any specific degree of shade, within widelimits. Thus, for example, a shade which many orchid growers regard as ideal affords a light transmission of with 35% shade. This particular requirement may be met by a 30 x 12 .020" construction of white pigmented saran monofilament: i. e., 30 warp strandsinterwoven with 12 filling strands per square inch, the individual strand being 0.020" in diameter. In weaving the fabric, it is reeded so that there are 25 ends in an opaque stripe wide and 5 strands in an open weave stripe section /2" wide. Such a fabric provides a high degree of reflection of the infrared rays, affording a cooler greenhouse. On dull days, the white filaments reflect additional sunlight into the greenhouse. This is true also in the evening when the sun is low; the sun's rays which normally would be lost are reflected into the greenhouse, thus lengthening the effective growing day. The fabric is substantially self-cleansing and when requiredycan be readily rolled to a position at the top of the greensuch as perpendicular or nearly perpendicular to the plane of the cloth, such rays pass directly line it, the improved shade cloth acts as a reflec- 10 Table I.

parent that the fabric may be constructed of monofllaments produced from many types of plastic compositions in addition to saran. All

these and many other variations are included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended patent claims.

The light transmission and wind resistance of typical fabrics in accordance with the present invention are indicated by the data given in TABLE! Light transmission and wind resistance of special saran fabrics woven for trial as greenhouse shades [All fabrics woven with white, opaque, 0.020-inch filament] Construction of Percentage of Light Fabric Transmitted wind KW ii ifti i es er Pounds Inc Yidth Width Liam Rays Diflused and per Square a Open of P mum Direct Light F t Mesh Opaque g Striking Stripe Stripe Fabric Inches Inches 7 it 36 48 4. 10 )4 34 35 49 4.04 His His 35 49 3. 81 is I M as 49 4. s7 M M 33 46 4. 31 1%! 1%0 32 46 4. l6 i5 32 45 4. 53 1 1 a e c 4 4. uniform mesh. 56 62 3. 42 For Comparison- Space Width of Between Lsth Leth: ir fifi ii i n s n or Paintad-Aluminum 16 P6 30 38 Dctcrmineclnith Wind velocity of 50 M. P. H.

tor to increase the amount of sunlight reaching the plants. Ordinarily with the suns rays striking the roof from low angles of incidence to the roof, substantially all therays would be reflected up and out of the greenhouse. However in the shade cloth of this invention the horizontal strands III in Fig. 3 which are preferably generally round, smooth, opaque, highly reflective monofllamcnts, act as reflecting elements and reflect the rays such as it along the paths IB and so reflect sunlight to the plants. This effect is particularly evident when the angle of the incident rays is such that one element It shadows the next. In such cases the only sunlight reaching the plants is that reflected by the elements in through the cloth.

By virtue .of the lattice pattern of the weave, the fabric has a low wind resistance or "sail" cffect compared to a'u'niiormly woven fabric having the same numberof warp and filling strands per unit area. In addition, the lath pattern weave affords good diffusion of heat between the widely spaced warp l0 and [warp l2] weft 13 strands in the loosely woven horizontal stripe areas. High reflectivity is provided by the smooth, shiny surface of the white pigmented mo'noflla-ments of which the fabric is constructed.

and since the pigment is uniformly dispersed throughout the monofilaments, the fabric will retain its color substantially unimpaired throughout its useful life.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many variations may be made from the particular fabric disclosed in the drawings and described immediately above. It will also be an- What is claimed is:

l. A roof comprising in combination a transparent supporting surface inclined to the horizontal and a cover on the supporting surface for controlling the amount of sunlight passing through the supportingsurfa'ce, the cover havin alternate opaque and light-transmitting stripes, the light-transmitting stripes comprising horizontal thin reflecting elements, the reflecting elements being widely spaced with respect to their thickness in the plane of the cover to permit direct transmission between the elements and through the supporting surface'of sunlight falling on the cover at high angles of incidence, and the reflecting elements having opaque highly re flecting surfaces so placed as to reflect through the supporting surfaces sunlight falling on the cover at low angles of incidence.

2. A roof comprising in combination a transparent supporting, surface inclined to the horizontal and a cover on the supporting surface for controlling the amount of sunlight passing through the supporting surface, the cover having alternate opaque and light-transmitting stripes, the light-transmitting stripes comprising horizontal thin reflecting elements, the reflecting elements being widely spaced with respect to their thickness in the plane of the cover to permit direct transmission between the elements and through the supporting surface of sunlight falling on the cover at high angles of incidence, and the reflecting elements being opaque highly reflecting round monofllaments which reflect through the supporting surfaces sunlight falling on the cover at low angles of incidence.

3. A shade cloth having alternate opaque and light-transmitting stripes, the light-transmitting stripes comprising thin reflecting elements widely spaced with respect to their thickness in the plane of the cloth to permit direct transmission through the cloth and between the elements of rays of light falling on the cloth at high anglesof incidence, and the reflecting elementshaving opaque highly reflecting surfaces so placed as to reflect through the cloth rays of light falling on the cloth at low anglesof incidence at which one reflecting element shadows the succeeding reflecting element.

4. A shade cloth having alternate opaque and light-transmitting stripes, the light-transmitting stripes comprisingthin reflecting elements widely spaced with respect to their thickness in the plane 01' the cloth to permit direct transmission through the cloth and between the elements of rays 01' light falling on the cloth at high angles of incidence, and the reflecting elements being opaque highly reflecting round monofllaments which reflect through the cloth rays of light talling on the cloth at low angles of incidence at which one reflecting element shadows the succeeding reflecting element.

5. A shade cloth having alternate opaque and light-transmitting stripes, the light-transmitting stripes comprising thin reflecting elements widely spaced with respect to their thickness in the plane of the cloth to permit direct transmission through the cloth and between the elements of rays 01 light falling on the cloth at high angles of incidence, and the reflecting elements being opaque highly reflecting round saran monofllaments which reflect through the cloth rays of 6 light falling on the cloth at low angles 0! incidence at which one reflecting element shadows the succeeding reflecting element.

6. A woven shade cloth in which substantially all of the'strands in one direction are opaque highly reflecting round monofllaments, said strands being arranged in alternate opaque and light-transmitting stripes, the opaque stripes being formed by grouping the strands close together to prevent substantial transmission or light through the cloth and the light-transmitting stripes being formed by spacing the strands- REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent or the original patent:

UNITED STATES PA'I'ENI'S Number Name Date 2,333,618 Strauss Nov. 2, 1943 2,354,435 Stedman July 25,1944 2,359,953 Whewell et a1 Oct. 10, 1944 OTHER REFERENCES Publication, "Textile Design and Colour," by Watson, London, 1912, page84. 

